True Quality CleaningStraight talk about caring for fine garments & household textiles from an expert who calls it like it is. In plain English.

Anatomy of a restoration: 1930's silk wedding dress

Every now and again, we're presented with a restoration project
that requires more thought, planning and pretesting than usual.

This was the case of a 1930's silk wedding dress brought to our
facility by the granddaughter of the bride. Our client was to be
married and decided that she'd like to wear her grandmother's
dress. And to top it off, her wedding was planned for the week of
her grandmother's 95th birthday.

A 75-year-old silk dress presents
many challenges for a fabricare restoration specialist, the
most important of which is assessing the strength of the
fibers.

In all likelihood, a gown of this vintage has been
exposed to acids over time. Typically, acids migrate or
transfer from materials in which the gown was stored, such as
cardboard boxes and cedar chests, and cause the fabric to yellow
and brittle over time. So it's always wise to proceed under the
assumption that the fabric will be weak or brittle in places.

The before and after photos below show the transformation from a
musty, heavily creased, beige-colored, heavily soiled dress to an
odorless, off white spectacularly clean dress that required only a
nip and tuck in the hands of one of our skilled seamstresses.